January 6, 2022

Yesterday a group of six intrepid hikers including yours truly met at the end of Hau Street in Aina Haina to hike Wailupe Valley. As the group organizer I intended to hike up Niu Valley but gave the wrong directions so we hiked Wailupe. The second image is the details of the whole hike. Very satisfying, stunning beauty with post deluge rainfall over the past few days to soak the group into sometime chocolate pudding mud. Fecund vegetation growth with hou tree thickets, giant Albizia trees, Cook Pine trees, and bamboo and even a beautiful wild orchid peeking out of a rotten tree branch. As we progressed up the narrower gorge carved by the stream I found the going challenging since I wear a brace on my left foot and calf because of torn achilles tendon. So my friend and I stopped short of the waterfall but the stream was pumping full of water. Please come view the hike through my camera lens.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/leonardsjacobs/albums/72157603520494610

The first GPS track is a blow up of my attempt to go to the original trail on the left by climbing up the very muddy, slippery ridge with overgrowth of trees, vines, and dead rotten vegetation to challenge our determination to get to this trail. Why all the wiggly lines? Well, as we progressed the hou tree thickets presented a challenge. The hou tree is a member of the hibiscus family endemic in Hawaii the tree grows in all directions creating a maze of impenetrable thicket. We crawled along under, over, and squirming at times to get through the smaller gaps until we heard other hikers at our destination trail but had to retreat back down from where we came.  

Why did we do this you may wonder? Well, I can attempt to explain by saying that the trail we were on seemed to end at the stream so I decided that the other trail was not far but really I was very much in error, wrong, not scouting out the stream more carefully...error! error! error! Well, I'm sure you can wonder if my brain was malfunctioning but wonder not since error happens throughout my life. Take the intent to hike Niu Valley with a short description of the hike but directions to the hike was Wailupe Valley instead. Before I leave this hike I must say that this adventure up towards the waterfall deep in this tropical valley was so well worth our careful attention since we were awestruck with our surroundings and challenges.  

Our personality and avenues of logic and thinking are not determined by rules of logic, rational thinking based on deduction and induction but often associated by more fixed belief system. Our genetics determine in part how our brain develops and how we process information and view our environment. For example, if we are cautious, easily frightened, even anxious without external cause, we view behavior such as my taking the wrong path off the designated trail as extremely foolhardy and I cannot be trusted. Nevertheless, the anxious person is cautious, may not take risks, and seeks reassurance and comfort sometimes through sameness and fortified surroundings. Other people are more extreme in their viewpoints, thinking, and behavior experiencing the world as full of malevolent forces out to harm that person and others. The paranoid thinking and behaviors prevail. The extreme of this was so well portrayed by Sean Penn in the movie The Madman and the Professor (on Netflix now).  Related again to this anxious side of things is the obsessive compulsive who seeks stability, calmness, and security through hesitation, rumination, sameness and loyalty to proven group and social beliefs. Now other people are hardwired differently. The thrill seekers, attention deficit disordered, action oriented, devil may care individual has followers and even sycophants wanting to live for the moment and take risks. I've been watching the adventures of the mountain climber crowd in a series of documentaries that are very worthwhile to see and admire but for me not to attempt. 14 Peaks and the Alpinist on Netflix and Dirtbag:The Legend of Fred Becky on Amazon Prime. To round out my personality profile descriptions which are not thorough or complete (but see DSM IV Personality Disorders for more) there's the person whose convince he or she is the cat's meow. They experience the world as their oyster and whatever they desire, believe, how they behave, and what they achieve is the greatest and the best. Even when they lose an election they report they won! They are not faking in declaring their genius and not seeing their errors. Sycophants enjoy the ride and the euphoria of success and disdain for the doubters. 

Well, if our personality determines how we think, feel, behave, and believe then what is the reality of our discussions of politics, education, and societal and environmental problems? Can we have a dialogue with others or are we left to commiserate and plot with our fellow believers?  You can answer that my descriptions of personality types describes the more extreme examples and we the normal ones can entertain other points of view and even change our minds when evidence and logic (and other factors) help this change. I'll continue to hold onto this view though dialogue across belief and personality issues may not be easily fruitful. Jonathan Haidt who I discussed in previous posts come to my mind (The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics and Religion). 

A close relative of mine is not talking to me because I wrote about some issues that affected both of us. I think she wants to own the issues and keep them hidden from herself and others. I'm sad but understand that my going up that ridge into the tangle of past issues created our disjuncture. Here I am again in the thicket crawling around in the mud hoping to find the destination but having to turn back.

Leonard